Monday, January 31, 2011

Thought I would take a minute this Monday morning for a little update and some miscellany.

1. I love sunshine. It's amazing how a nice day of sun and above freezing temperatures can make me feel like a new person and like all is right in the world.

2. I'm reading Donald Miller's book Searching for God Knows What. I LOVE Donald Miller. He is probably the exact opposite of me, the way our brains work, but I still love his books and I feel like God teaches me a lot through them. This is probably due to the whole his brain working different from mine. He talks about how God is not a God of formulas and rules. I like formulas and rules because I can understand and control them. And often times I try to take what I am reading in scripture and make a formula or if-then statement out of it. Donald talks about trying to listen to what God wants to say to you when reading scripture. So simple, I know. And I feel like an idiot that this is an epiphany for me. But I am always trying to fit scripture into some formula or something that makes sense to me, rather than just asking God what he wants to say to me. So I'm going to try that approach. I'm pretty excited about it!

3. Did you know that they are coming out with a new Oregon Trail game? Did anyone else love playing Oregon Trail in elementary school? Unfortunately it is going to be a facebook game and I don't really like facebook and I especially don't like facebook games. This is probably a good thing because the last thing I need to be doing is spending time playing computer games.

4. Sometimes I check to see what kind of jobs are available in my company's Honolulu office. Today was one of those times.

5. Sweet Callie at Through Clouded Glass gave me a lovely little blog award. You're supposed to list 7-10 things about yourself and then give the award to 5-7 other bloggers. So here are my 7-10 things:

a. I LOVE to ski and have been going to Colorado to ski just about every year since 7th grade.
b. I'm not great at decorating. Derek has decorated much of our house. I like looking at pretty rooms and houses and wish my house was better decorated, but I hate spending money on decorations, so I go with the less is more philosophy and don't do anything.
c. I used to have an obsession with Robert Smith, running back for Ohio State and then the Minnesota Vikings. I became a Minnesota Vikings fan in 6th grade when he went there to play football. I was a huge Vikings fan until he retired and then I stopped following them. I tried to do school projects and reports on the Vikings. Recently Derek found my confirmation workbook from 7th grade. One question asked who you wanted to be like. I wrote the Saints (like the holy historical people, not the football team) and Robert Smith. I was such a strange kid (and by kid I mean teenager, when it's no longer cute to be strange.)
d. I have a huge irrational fear of throwing up and being around anyone who is throwing up. This makes me concerned for pregnancy and motherhood.
e. I don't like trying to come up with things to say about myself because I feel like there is a lot of pressure to make yourself seem interesting and not put the obvious boring stuff down.
f. If I could have one thing, guilt free and money was not a factor, I would have a boat. I love being out on the water in the sunshine.
g. I hate carbonation. For that reason I do not, nor have I ever drank any sort of soda product. It is a painful and unpleasant experience for me.

Whew! I made it through the hard part. Now the fun part of passing this along. This one goes out to:

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The Parable of the Great Banquet

15When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”

16 Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests.17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’

18 “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’

19 “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’

20 “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’

21 “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’

22 “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’

23 “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.24 I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”

As I said in my post yesterday, we talked about this parable at our young life leadership meeting on Friday. There were lots of good things that came out of it, but one question that we discussed, I cannot get out of my mind. The question was this - Why do you think the poor, crippled, blind and lame were invited?

The answer I thought was easy - they have nothing better to do. Of course they would come to a great banquet, they probably never get invited to anything.

And to me this was convicting. How often do I have too many other things to do than be with Jesus? I probably wouldn't say out loud that I have better things to do, but when you look at my time, that would likely be the conclusion you draw.

And the truth is I like it that way. I like filling my schedule up with all sorts of things to make me feel important and loved. And if I look around at a lot of us who call ourselves Christians, a lot of what I see is people who claim to love Jesus, but still try to fill their lives up with the things of this world. We're not that different from non-Christians. We might not get drunk when we go out on the weekends, but we still want to fill our weekends up with friends and fun. We may try to avoid certain sins, but we still spend more of our time on ourselves, our families, our houses, our stuff and whatever we can to make us feel good. And I know a lot of times (in my case especially) we spend a lot of our time doing stuff "for God" that there is no time left to just be with Him.

Ironically, after leadership on Friday, Derek and I didn't have anything to do. And I felt kind of bummed. I was pretty sure that some of our friends would be hanging out, but no one had called us. And when stuff like that happens, I always feel so bummed out. I wonder why no one called me. I've gotten better at dealing with this (see my post on the idol of importance) and I know that it's ok if I'm not invited to everything all the time, but it still kind of stinks when it's a weekend night and no one called you to see what you were up to.

After talking about this parable though, for the first time, I think I was glad to be in that situation. I realized that when I have time like that, a whole evening with nothing that I feel compelled to do, then I am available to be with Jesus. And that to be the person that everyone calls when they want to hang out may not actually be the best thing. I realized that I don't always have to have a full calendar of things to do. I want to have "nothing better to do" than to just be with Jesus. What a blessing.

Now, before you go feeling sorry for me like I have no friends (or before the friends I have read this and feel like jerks) I must say that we do have great friends who we do spend a lot of our time with that I love and are a huge blessing in my life. And I am not mad at my friends for not calling me all the time to see what I am doing. I don't call them all the time either. I know we have probably all felt this way at some point. My point is that I don't need to always have something to do or someone to hang out with. To have "nothing better to do" is really a blessing. And I need to work on making my schedule more like that of a social outcast than a social butterfly, so I won't miss out on the best thing - being with God.

So Friday night, Derek and I went home and spent some time reading scripture, talking, praying a lot and just being with God. And it was so good. And there really is nothing I would have rather been doing. I hope this is a lesson I keep with me for a long time.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

This weekend was such a good weekend. I want to write it down so I don't forget. Not that it was anything extra special. Just a good weekend. I think we are always looking for something really special and exciting to happen all the time, but I want to remember just the ordinary days because that's where most of life happens. I won't have any pictures this post either, because I didn't take any this weekend. Again, it was ordinary. But here are the highlights for my own reference.

Friday
I have the day off! Derek does too (for the most part) and we stay in bed til after 11. We decide we should go to the gym so we put our gym clothes on. Derek is having basketball goals fixed at the church so he wants to stop by and check them out real quick on our way. While we're there, one of our LCA guys shows up. They know Derek works there so he came in to see if D was there. Friday was a snow day and a bunch of them were meeting at the church to go sledding. So once Derek got done with work stuff we go out and watch them sled and encourage them to do dumb stuff while we watch and laugh. A good hour later everyone is freezing and ready for lunch. So we join them at Cane's (fried chicken) instead of going to the gym. Oh well.

The cats have an afternoon vet appointment. Our efforts to put Topanga on a diet have been for not as she has only managed to lose a half a pound in a year. Now we must feed the cats separately and we have new special food for Topanga. After a rough weekend they are adjusting better. At first Feeny wouldn't eat because Topanga wasn't there. I tried to have her eat in the bathroom but Feeny just sat outside the bathroom and wouldn't eat. So I let them eat together and tried to just keep them eating out of only their own bowl. Well of course Feeny wanted the special (very expensive) food and Topanga wanted the regular food. So after some experimenting they are eating separately and both are eating a combination of both foods. Or they just got hungry enough to eat whatever I gave them wherever they were. Hopefully Topanga loses weight fast so this feeding ordeal will be temporary.

We had young life leadership Friday. We are talking about parables, specifically we talked about the parable of the banquet. This will get its own post soon, but it was good. After leadership we went to Brooklyn pizza and talked, like really good conversation, then went home and read scripture together and prayed. I loved it. I love that we can be honest with each other and really share what is going on. I wish we did that more often. But it was really good for both of us. Then we watched Twilight Eclipse. I know what you're thinking - how do you go from reading the Bible to watching Twilight. But the heart wants what it wants and we wanted to watch vampires. I blame my sister in law Kayla for getting us hooked when we watched the first two visiting her in Pennsylvania.

Saturday
Today Derek woke up early to go to work. I slept til 10:30. Who am I? How come I love to sleep so much recently? Anywho, this was a low key day. My big goal for the weekend was to organize our pictures. We have so many pictures from the last 5+ years that were all in 1 big box, not organized or anything. So I put them in chronological order. Now I just need to find some cheapy cheap albums to put them in. And still go through all the digital photos and print off the good ones of those. Luckily I have a $25 shutterfly credit, so that should help. I walked Moose, caught up on blogs and generally just hung around the house until I met my friend Carly for Starbucks. We talked for 2 hours. I loved it. Clearly we have not seen each other enough recently. Then I met my friend Kaelyn for dinner and we went to Centenary to watch her boyfriend's basketball game. He plays in the league Derek runs so I got to see D too! After that game Derek was done for the day so we went to get some dinner at Shamrocks with our friend Keith and watched more Boy Meets World. Happy night!

Sunday
Woke up for 9:45 church - are you impressed? Loved the service. Found out the church is starting some small groups to read the book Radical together. We have been wanting to get more involved with the church, but it's hard because we spend so much time doing young life stuff. We decided on a whim to join a small group that meets after church. It's at the house of the parents of some LCA students. And I'm so glad we went. First of all, it was good to be some of the youngest people there. We spend a lot of time with high schoolers, making us usually the oldest ones. There were 3 couples in our group who have high school aged children, and I loved sitting from the vantage point of being the younger ones. Also, our discussion was great and I think that God is going to do something really cool with this. I am excited to see what happens.

The rest of Sunday was spent grocery shopping, reading my Bible, cooking (a new recipe - holla!) and with our first campaigners (Bible study with high school students) of the semester. I love love love our LCA students and we ended up having a really good discussion in which I was able to speak some hard truth to some of them, and they were actually appreciative of it. You know how it's so much easier to just agree with someone when they feel justified in their sin. Well God totally gave me words to speak truth and encourage them to live like Christ instead of the world, and they totally got it! It was such a great feeling to see that they got it, and to know that I was bold and spoke truth when I wasn't sure how they would react and it wasn't what they wanted to hear. I must remember this and do it more often. God is so faithful.

So that was the weekend. Sorry for long post with no words. But I'm glad I wrote it down so I can remember one day what our typical every days at this point in our life looked like.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

So I mentioned that I got a new fancy pants camera for Christmas. Well one reason that I wanted said fancy pants camera is because I wanted to be able to push the button and picture to take. Not push the button, wait while the camera does whatever it does and then have the picture take a second or 2 later. By then I usually missed the shot I wanted, especially if it was a picture of one of my nephews or of my pup. I can't tell you how many pictures I have had to delete because who/whatever I was taking the picture of moved and was no longer doing what I wanted to take a picture of, was looking away or was out of the shot all together.

Since we have had a lot of snow, I thought I would take my pup outside and mess with some of the different settings and see what happened. And I got some fun pictures that I have never been able to get before - Moose running. And they are in focus (mostly) and he is in the picture! Such a happy day. Here is what I'm talking about:

This last one is my fave. I know these aren't quite as sharp as one taken when he isn't moving:

But when you consider that he was coming at me full speed, I am pretty pleased that I was able to get some motion shots that are so clear. Yay for fast shutter speeds!

For this post I am linking up with Farm Girl Paints for her thrive project. She is taking photography classes and sharing what she is learning and then having a link up where you can practice those skills and show what you got. So these are my pics with a fast shutter speed. I'm loving learning all that this camera is capable of!

Friday, January 21, 2011

I absolutely love Fridays - especially when I don't have to work. And last night there was a snow storm, meaning we were stuck inside. With no where that we had to be today. So we watched episodes of one of our favorite shows:

In my opinion (and Derek's too) season 4 is probably the best season of Boy Meets World. We laugh, we cry, we relive our childhood. Ok, so we don't really cry, but I've come close a couple of times. It's such a good show! Anyone else out there a Boy Meets World Fan?

The other night when we were in bed, I asked him if he could live anywhere in the world where would it be. He said Stowe, Vermont, in the dream house.

I asked him what he would do there. This was his reply:

Make fires.
Have snowball fights.
Make ginger bread houses.
Make pizzas.
Go for hikes.
Read.
Go skiing.
Sleep in bunkbeds. {He said that we would share a bunk.}

I asked if he would be willing to up and move from Lexington. He said yes. But he said we would keep our house as our summer house. Since you also win $500,000. I guess he's thinking pay off our house while we're at it and keep both.

I asked what we would do for jobs. He said he would write books and I would edit them. In case you didn't know, I'm an engineer. If I'm the one editing his books I think we're in trouble.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

I love long weekends and this was a good one. I had Saturday to get some stuff done around the house, take our old ceiling fan and track lighting to the Restore, hang out with an LCA friend, go to the 1st birthday party of one of our friends' babies, and spend the evening relaxing with D.

Sunday we headed up to northern Kentucky to spend some time with Derek's family. We got to see baby Connor and baby Oliver and celebrate Henry's birthday.

Connor looks terrified. I swear he likes me. Kayla even taught me what to do to make him stop crying.

Henry got a pair of cowboy boots for his birthday from Uncle Kevin and Aunt Kayla and he wouldn't take them off. He loved them. The picture below cracks me up. The look on his face shows how excited he was.

We spent most of Sunday playing with Henry, chasing him around the house, eating ice cream and reading stories. Monday we took Henry to Chuck E Cheeses. I don't remember the last time I was at Chuck E Cheese, and really couldn't even remember what it looked like inside. All I can say is it was out of control. I guess because it was a day off school it was extra crazy. Craziness aside, Henry loved it. So did Derek. About 10 minutes in, Derek says to me, "Anne, we gotta come back here sometime just the 2 of us!" There was a football game that Derek was so set on trying to break the record.

I think Henry enjoyed Chuck E Cheese as much as Derek did. We played ski ball and all sorts of other silly games, collected lots of tickets and let Henry pick out some prizes.

It was a real fun weekend and is about to be a real fun week because I only have to work 3 days this week! Holla!

Friday, January 14, 2011

"All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had."

A few weeks ago I mentioned in my New Years Resolutions post that I wanted to memorize more scripture this year - shooting for 2 new verses each month. This is the first verse that I memorized this year. I liked it because another one of my resolutions is to give more. This verse reminds that what I have is not my own, but God has entrusted us with much so that we can share with everyone. I have also been bringing it to mind when I feel dissatisfied and find myself wanting things or feeling like things aren't fair, etc. Having this verse in my heart reminds me that this life is not about me. It is about being a part of God's kingdom and that everything I have is for that purpose, not for my own gain. Then I remember to be content, knowing that God has already given me all that I need. It helps me to begin to focus less on me and more on how I can bless others with what I already have.

Is anyone else trying to memorize more scripture? Do you have a verse that you have been so glad to have in your heart? I would love to hear it, as I need 22 more verses to memorize this year! {I already have the next one picked out, but that's about it}

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

We've been busy bees around here. I mentioned a few posts back that we got some Lowe's gift cards for Christmas. It didn't take us long to figure out what to do with those. We decided to replace the ceiling fan and track lighting in our family room, and I love the way it turned out.

I didn't get a before picture of the ceiling fan in the room, but to give you an idea of what we were working with before here it is after it was already taken down (and a couple of blades were taken off).

And here's the old track lighting:

And this is what it looks like now!

It's a small change but I really love the new fixtures. And don't worry, we finally took down our Christmas decorations tonight!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

One thing we have been wanting to do is get a memo board where we can display pictures, cards, etc. rather than keep them cluttering up our fridge. We wanted a fairly large one to put in our hallway, so it needed to be kind of long. We couldn't find one that was the right side, so when I found this tutorial on Billie Monster I knew I wanted to try it.

Not being very crafty by nature, this was the perfect project for me. I was able to complete most of it in an afternoon. In fact the hardest part was figuring out how to hang it. So, here is what I used to make it:

We got some batting, fabric, ribbon, buttons, a bulletin board and a staple gun. I basically just covered the bulletin board in the batting and fabric and stapled it to the back. Then I laid out the ribbon and stapled it to the back of the board too. I finished it off by sewing buttons where the ribbons intersected. Here is the finished product:

Here it is hung up on the wall with all the pictures on it:

And here is our fridge looking nice and clean without all of the pictures and cards all over it:

I didn't put buttons at every spot where the ribbons crossed because they were so closely spaced together and if I had put a button at every intersection it would be hard to fit pictures in. I think if I did it again, I would space the ribbon further apart and put a button at every intersection. My friend Sarah has been in town (she is awesome) and we decided to make her one, and so for hers I learned from the mistakes on mine and we spread the ribbons out and put buttons at each point where they crossed. We also hot glued the buttons instead of sewing them. It seems like that was easier and worked just as well. We also used 2 different colors of ribbon, which I think looks kind of fun. Here is how it turned out:

Also, for Sarah's we pinned the ribbon to where we want it before we stapled it, which I think was a good idea, that way you could change the spacing etc. to see what you like. I was having fun taking pictures with my new camera. Here is a fun picture I took of the pins.

So there you have it. A couple of memo boards. I think they turned out well and were really easy to make. They weren't that cheap because I had to buy the cork board, but I love how it turned out and that it was the exact size that I wanted, with the fabric I wanted. You should definitely give it a shot!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

If you read my New Years Resolutions, one goal for this year is to simplify. And I've seen that some of you might want to do some simplifying in your lives too. I came across a couple things I wanted to share with you real quick.

First off is this post about eating simply. There are some very interesting and convicting facts in this post and I would really encourage you to check it out. It's not a long post at all, but it definitely makes me think a lot about how much time and energy I put into cooking tasty meals and making sure there is variety coupled with how much time and energy I am putting into exercising to shed those extra holiday pounds I just put on. This doesn't mean that I won't still try new recipes and continue to learn to be a better cook - but again the key is simplicity. I would like to try to use simple ingredients that are healthy, keeping the purpose of preparing meals to nourish us, and not over indulge ourselves. And I still believe there are times to indulge and celebrate, but that doesn't need to be every day.

Also, my bloggy friend Kristin has just started a new little blog project called Living Graciously. A lot of the things she posts about here go along with the idea of simplicity. And she has started a fun little challenge. Every week day she posts a challenge and gives each challenge a point amount. If you complete the challenge that day you get the points and at the end of the month she has a little something for the highest point scorer. Monday the challenge was to take 15 minutes and clean out your messiest kitchen drawer. Not something that takes a ton of time, but is a small step towards simplifying. Things like this are good for me, because I oftentimes get overwhelmed with the thought of something like organizing my kitchen, but this was so easy and in 15 minutes I was able to clean out 2 drawers. Yesterday the challenge was to write a few thank you notes for some Christmas gifts you received. Something I needed to do anyways, but this gave me the motivation to do it that day rather than feel overwhelmed at the large list of things I need to do but don't know where to start.

I know that for some of you, something like this might feel like adding something to your life. But for me, simplifying is not synonymous with doing less or taking it easy. My natural tendency is to not do things, let them collect and then feel overwhelmed. So having Kristin's little challenges everyday helps me to take little baby steps at doing things I already needed to do and making life a little more simple one day at a time, rather than trying to do it all at once. Living simply is a lifestyle I hope to adopt, not a one time act of purging and organizing. If you are like me and having that little motivational reminder everyday helps you, go check out Kristin's Guide to Living Graciously. And today is a great day to start because today's challenge is to take 30 minutes to yourself to do something you love!

2. Get to work on time in the morning. Kinda - I did well with this for a while and overall made improvements, but there were some days (like today, but its 2011 so today doesn't count!) where it didn't quite happen. I was better about staying a little late if I didn't make it on time though.

3. Run a half marathon. Check

4. Pay off student loans and be debt free. Check

5. Organize my house and get rid of things we don't need. Kinda - I didn't make the progress I was hoping to, but this is an ongoing thing and we definitely did get rid of some things we don't need - in fact in December I took 10 bags of things to give away out of our house!

6. Cook 1 new meal each month. Kinda - I didn't quite get one new one each month, but probably about half that. I do have a couple new recipes that were successes that I have made again, so that is a success.

7. Go on a week-long vacation with Derek. Check8. Have a personal retreat once a semester. Fail - I still hope to do this this year though.

9. Devote 10 minutes of each day to prayer. Fail - started off well, but every day was a lofty goal. I would say my prayer life improved though, so that is a success.

10. Be more intentional in my relationships. Kinda - this one is hard to measure. I would definitely say many relationships improved over the year, although not always due to my being intentional.

11. Start and finish my scrapbook. Big Fat Fail! I did make a family vacation scrapbook from my college years, but the organizing of photos of mine and Derek's relationship followed by putting them into a scrapbook did not happen. Maybe this year.

Looking back on 2010 it was definitely a success in many ways and I feel pretty good about all that was accomplished. This year though, I'm not feeling a big list of resolutions. I've given it some thought and all I really want to do this year is grow closer to the Lord and glorify Him more. So I have a list of 3 not so specific things that I want to focus on this year:

1. Memorize scripture - I am decent at this, but I think if I am more intentional about it can only result in good things. On Beth Moore's blog she has a little challenge to memorize 24 verses this year, 1 every 2 weeks. I'm not going to check in or anything, but I like that pace, so I am going to shoot for 24 new verses. I still need to pick the first one though!

2. Simplify - I have been feeling somewhat overwhelmed by all that we have, so the goal this year is to throw out / donate / give away lots of things in an effort to live a life less cluttered by stuff to make more room for enjoying whatever it is that God has for us.

3. Give more - Again feeling overwhelmed by how much we have, and how there is nothing we really need, I want to be much more discerning in what I purchase for myself, and live on less so that I may give more to others who are truly in need, as well as the furthering of God's kingdom.

So those are the goals for the year. I feel good about the shortened list. What are your resolutions for this year? Or do you not do new years resolutions? I love reading other people's and I'm sure I will end up wanting to add more to the list!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

I'm ridiculous for just now getting to wrap up the second half of our Christmas celebrations, but better late than never.

We headed down to northern KY on Christmas evening. We hung out with Kevin, Kayla Connor and Derek's parents. The next day Rob, Corrie, Henry and Oliver came over and we all celebrated Christmas together. Henry is almost 3, do he was real fun to watch open his presents. He was so excited about each gift and wanted to play with it once he opened it instead of moving onto the next one.

Here are the 3 kiddos.

Oliver opening his gifts.

We got Henry a jungle animal set...

And a Buzz Lightyear outfit :)

Derek and I got some great gifts including clothes and a Lowe's gift card (which we have already put to good use - which I'll share soon!) but our favorite thing was getting to spend time with our nephews.

And I had a little photo shoot with Oliver using my new camera!

In addition to spending quality time with family, we got to see my best friend from high school, Amy and her husband Dave, hang out with Derek's best friend Bryan, and our friends Nick, Stephanie and their son Cole, as well as Derek's friend Will from high school and his wife, Ashley. We also snuck in a trip to Ikea :)

Stephanie and Cole

Will and Ashley

I had fun taking pictures with my new camera. Here are a few fun ones.

That's it for now. We had a wonderful Christmas getting to spend lots of time with both of our families. We've been busy little bees since we have been home, so I'll be back soon to share some fun little projects with you.